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Dog days of summer

Paul Sipe — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:30:09 +0000

For most people, the headaches of tax returns are well behind you. This is a great time to begin planning for 2011. If you found yourself digging for information or missing tax records, you can avoid those headaches by planning ahead and making your information as accurate, up to date, and consolidated as possible.

In addition, keeping organized records ensures a much soother audit if your return is selected for examination.

For an individual, make sure to keep your records together. A few of the items you’ll want to keep are:

1. Bills

2. Credit card and other receipts

3. Invoices

4. Mileage logs

5. Canceled or imaged checks

6. Any information that may pertain to a credit or deduction you claimed

For a business owner the same will apply. However you may have additional documentation to track.

1. Gross receipts or point of sales reports, bank statements, and reconciliation reports.

2. Proof of reimbursements, such as meals, postage, mileage, and other items provided under a reimbursement plan.

3. Employment tax records must be kept for at least four years. I suggest employing a payroll service, such as Primepay. Your records will be stored electronically online and always available.

4. If you are using accounting software, be sure have it updated and reconciled at least quarterly. This will not only aid in management decisions but reduce your CPA expense during tax season. Also remember, accounting software is not a substitute for the supporting documentation required by the IRS.

No one likes tax time. You can make yours less stressful by keeping up with your records during the year, saving you both money and time that could be spent concentrating on your profession.

Merchant Services and PCI Compliance

Will Deshong — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:01:37 +0000

As many business owners are aware, PCI compliance is a buzz word in the merchant services industry. Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) is requiring every merchant and every processor to become certified and validated on an annual basis. Every processor is now required to be PCI compliant, and they are required to have all their merchants that process with them to be PCI compliant. One requirement of PCI-DSS is that merchants complete an annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), a validation tool used to assist merchants with their PCI-DSS compliance. Merchants that process transactions using a computer are required to go through a quarterly computer system scan in addition to filling out the questionnaire.

This validation will come at a cost to the merchant, but the benefit of securely processing cards very much outweighs the cost of certification. Every processor in the industry will be assessing a fee to its merchants for the validation process. The fees from our processors at Atlantic Merchant Services are very competitive with the other processors in the industry.

Atlantic Merchant Services is proactively involved in making sure our merchants have the highest level of PCI security. We are also actively assisting our merchants during this validation period. Should you have any questions, please contact Will DeShong (contact information is located in the “Our Members” tab).

Three Best Ways to Improve Your Online Reputation wsj Oct.2,2009

Bryan Monteith — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:40:43 +0000

Three Best Ways to Improve Your Online Reputation

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125449149143359435.html